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May 10, 2014

Filthy Clint Howard Rocking the Satan Review - 'Evilspeak'

Evilspeak
(1981)

Review by Jude
Felton

Two siblings,
two vastly differing careers. One starred opposite the Fonz, the other had a
bear as a best friend. One went on to a very successful career as a director,
the other remained cool as hell and to date has made well over 200 film and
television performances. Yep, I’m talking about brothers’ Ron and Clint Howard.
We all know that Ron lost his hair and maintains a very healthy career as a
director, but it’s Clint who will always be the cool one. He pops up in
everything, including his brother’s films, but also headlined some terrifically
entertaining horror flicks, such as Ice Cream Man and the film I’m reviewing
here; Evilspeak.

Scream
Factory has, yet a-bloody-gain, dug up and dusted off an old-school gem and
slapped it on Blu-ray. Thank you guys and gals, as this is just a wonderfully
fun movie.

Any film that
starts off with nudity and a beheading before the opening credits have finished
is bound to be a winner, and this revenge flick is no different. As Stanley
Coopersmith, Clint Howard is the brunt of bullying and victimization from the
hands of students and faculty alike, at the military academy he attends.

This being the
early 1980’s though finds Stanley with access to a primitive, by our standards,
home computer. It’s here that he manages to conjure up all manner of satanic
goodies, in order to wreak his wild and very gory revenge.

Evilspeak is
a film that entertains, from start to finish, with gore aplenty (especially
towards the latter stages), a terrific lead performance from Howard and tons of
elements ripped from other films. Nods to Carrie, The Omen and any number of
revenge flicks all combine to help make Evilspeak a winner, and with the advent
of the home computer being utilized anyone would think that they would take
over the world one day….

The visuals
and audio on this Blu-ray release are definitely up to Scream’s usual high
standard, and impress throughout. Sure, part of the charm of catching an older
flick like this is to see it in a raw version, such as an old VHS, but it is
absolutely fantastic to see it cleaned up and uncut here.

This is a
film that delivers thrills, chills and laughs throughout its running time, and
hopefully with this new release it will see the film win over a whole new set
of fans. Terrific fun and Clint Howard with crazy hair? What the hell more
could you ask for? Okay, you get a healthy selection of special features too.
Now rush out and buy this beast!